In a tournament that saw 32 strong players, and sold out 2 weeks before the deadline, snooker in BC is going in the right direction.  Albert Kenny, who was born in Ireland, and now lives in Alberta trekked over the rocky mountains to hoist the trophy this weekend.  It almost wasn’t a reality for the 2022 Alberta Open champion, as in his semifinal match he was in tough with local Charlie Brown.  Brown was leading their semi final match by 2-1, and Kenny made a nice break at the end of frame 4 to force a black ball re-spot.  Both players had their chance to drop the black in, but it was Kenny who prevailed, and made a strong 55 break in the decider that Brown could not of recovered from.

 

In the other semifinal it was a rematch of last year’s final between CC Yoo and Max Guan.  As we all remember that final last year was filled with top notch drama and coming down to the final pink for Guan to become the 2022 BC Open Snooker Champion.  In this semi final all the gears were running for Guan, as if you blinked you would have probably missed his whitewashing of Yoo 3-0.

 

It set up to be a great battle between the 2022 BC Open champ and the 2022 Alberta Open champ.  Perhaps a few too many quick shot choices for Guan as he missed a few easy pots for him in the final.  Kenny kept plowing on with calculated potting and safety play leading him to a 4-0 whitewash win for the title.  Congratulations Albert Kenny, you are the 2023 BC Open Snooker Champion!!!

 

Thanks:

 

Big thanks go out to Jonathan Sun and the crew at Top 147 for making us all feel at home in the room, and raising up the standard by getting the tables into tournament ready conditions.

 

Many many thanks to Rob Johnson and the AAA photo crew who put together a great program, so players and spectators will have a keepsake for the years to come.  In addition, they do wonderful work on the posters all season long to get the word out about all the events here.

 

Lance Brommeland, we could have not done the tournament without your great set of skills.  Ranging from tech support to tournament director to making sure everything ran smoothly and effectively.

 

Ken Gammer, who was a whiz with the camera setup this year.  I have had numerous accolades for Ken’s work as he captured the matches and as well humanized the game by showing us the players of the table on our screens.  Well done Ken!!

 

Sam Tonning, with his great work behind the scenes, scorekeeping and emceeing the final.

 

Wendy Brown, with her wonderful work at greatpoolstartshere.com to get everyone registered.

 

Krystal Takacs, who made sure everyone had a cold drink or two.  As well selling the 50/50 tickets to help one person have a financial rewarding weekend.

 

Thanks to Referees: Gary Spence, Tommy Ha, Charley Han and Gary Wallace.

 

Thanks to Scorekeepers: Baltej Atwal, Vinit Dassani, and David Fisher.

 

Big thanks to our advertisers that made the program a possibility:

Ray Sznadel, Nic Barrow, Billiards Plus, OX Billiards, Red Cat Records, Windsor Plywood, Delta Billiards, ANAVETS Unit #100, Larry Anderson, Victory Trophies, Art Parts, DeRoo Cues, Marstin Billiards, Red Tree Dental, Anizco Furniture Liquidators, Bradsen Bookkeeping, Home Hardware, and a big thanks to Snooker enthusiast Godfrey Chan.

 

Thanks to Red Cat Records, and Puff Pipes for their donation to the high break prize.

Jason Cox at White LES for providing chairs for the spectators to sit on.

Nigel at Brassneck Brewery for making sure everyone had something to drink.

 

Thanks to all the players that came from near and far to participate in the tournament, and to all our spectators in the room and viewers online.

 

I hope you all enjoyed the 2023 BC Open Snooker Championships, and let’s continue to raise the bar and grow the wonderful game of Snooker.